Franklin D. Roosevelt: "Second Bill of Rights" Message to Congress - Milestone Documents

Franklin D. Roosevelt: “Second Bill of Rights” Message to Congress

( 1944 ) Commentary by Mark R. Shulman, Pace University School of Law
  • “The one supreme objective for the future, … for each Nation individually, and for all the United Nations, can be summed up in one word: Security. And that means not only physical security which provides safety from attacks by aggressors. It means also economic security, social security, moral security—in a family of Nations.” - “Second Bill of Rights” Message to Congress
  • “Overconfidence and complacency are among our deadliest enemies. Last spring … more than a thousand airplanes that could have been made and should have been made were not made. Those who failed to make them were not on strike. They were merely saying, The war's in the bag—so let's relax.' That attitude on the part of anyone—Government or management or labor—can lengthen this war. It can kill American boys.” - “Second Bill of Rights” Message to Congress
  • “This Republic had its beginning, and grew to its present strength, under the protection of certain inalienable political rights … to life and liberty. As our Nation has grown in size and stature, however—as our industrial economy expanded—these political rights proved inadequate to assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness. We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. Necessitous men are not free men.'” - “Second Bill of Rights” Message to Congress
  • “People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made. In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all regardless of station, race, or creed.” - “Second Bill of Rights” Message to Congress
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Franklin D. Roosevelt (Library of Congress)

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